rickycourtney
Conductor
Browsing through the board packet for today's San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority meeting and I found some really interesting information in the minutes from the last board meeting...
For background... the San Joaquin is Amtrak's fifth-busiest service, carrying a record 1.2 million passengers in FY2013 and ridership has been growing at a pace any route would be envious of (+6.6% in FY2013, +7.2 in FY2012, +9.2 in FY2011, +13.2 in FY2010).
The Comet cars were added to the San Joaquin in October 2013 (the start of FY2014) with the hope that they would help increase ridership on the line by adding more available seats, but FY2014 was the first time in several years that ridership stagnated (down 1.3% to a still a respectable 1,188,228 passengers). I'm not saying that the two are directly connected, but the timing is very interesting.
I have mixed feelings about the Comet cars. Beech Grove did a great job overhauling them, they are much nicer than the Amtrak owned Horizon cars and the seats are more comfortable than the bi-level cars, but they are a drag compared to the bi-level fleet California passengers are accustomed to. Like most high-level cars used with low-level platforms, the steps are steep and the doorways are narrow. They also lack on-board electric wheelchair lifts and passenger-accessable bike racks.
Very interesting that the Comet cars are coming off of regular service on the San Joaquin and equally interesting that they could be seen on more routes and could be used to replace the single-level Pacific Surfliner trainset.Caltrans has directed Amtrak to remove the Comet Cars from regular service. [Director of Operations, Brian Schmidt] said, however, that removing them from service and not having them operate at all are two different things. Mr. Schmidt said that the State is not looking to “mothball” the Comet Cars trainsets. He said that they would be using them for high-ridership periods, and as emergency equipment (if bi-level trainset couldn’t go out they could use the Comet Car trainset as a replacement), he said also when they had a lot of overhauls a Comet Car trainset might be utilized. Vice Chair Perea asked “Everywhere? Surfliners? Capitols?” Mr. Schmidt replied “Everywhere”.
Mr. Schmidt said that now the Comet Cars are part of the Northern California fleet, but in the future they would also be used down south. He said that if a Capitol Corridor train went out of service, then a Comet Car trainset would be used to replace that train. Mr. Schmidt said there is also discussion of one of the Comet Car trainsets going to the Surfliners to replace a single-level Horizon Car trainset which is being leased from Amtrak. He said that this could result in a cost savings for the State. He said that there are a lot of discussions going on about how best to utilize the Comet Cars to best serve the State. Mr. Schmidt reiterated that the Comet Cars would go to whichever service needed equipment.
For background... the San Joaquin is Amtrak's fifth-busiest service, carrying a record 1.2 million passengers in FY2013 and ridership has been growing at a pace any route would be envious of (+6.6% in FY2013, +7.2 in FY2012, +9.2 in FY2011, +13.2 in FY2010).
The Comet cars were added to the San Joaquin in October 2013 (the start of FY2014) with the hope that they would help increase ridership on the line by adding more available seats, but FY2014 was the first time in several years that ridership stagnated (down 1.3% to a still a respectable 1,188,228 passengers). I'm not saying that the two are directly connected, but the timing is very interesting.
I have mixed feelings about the Comet cars. Beech Grove did a great job overhauling them, they are much nicer than the Amtrak owned Horizon cars and the seats are more comfortable than the bi-level cars, but they are a drag compared to the bi-level fleet California passengers are accustomed to. Like most high-level cars used with low-level platforms, the steps are steep and the doorways are narrow. They also lack on-board electric wheelchair lifts and passenger-accessable bike racks.